


Be the Light to Carry Me

by KtheG



Category: Warrior Nun (TV)
Genre: F/F, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-08-29
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:33:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26167957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KtheG/pseuds/KtheG
Summary: The Halo heals, but it also hurts. Shannon has to deal with all this entails, but luckily she's got two incredible women to help her.
Relationships: Sister Lilith/Shotgun Mary/Shannon Masters
Comments: 6
Kudos: 29





	Be the Light to Carry Me

The Halo heals, but it also hurts. While physical wounds are healed with no scars left behind, it can’t erase the pain the nerves feel, it can’t erase to way the body feels as it stitches itself back together. When Shannon got the Halo, she was prepared for the responsibility, to step into the leadership role, to guide her sisters through battle. What she wasn’t prepared for though, was Lilith pulling her aside the next morning and giving her a stack of notebooks filled with journal entries of past Bearers.

“There’s the formal book of course, but this was given to me to help in preparation. I’m really proud of you.” Lilith hands over the books with a kiss to Shannon’s forehead and then hurries off to go start her morning training. Shannon looks to Mary, confused at the action. They had been concerned that Lilith would be upset she wasn’t chosen as the heir to the Halo. Mary shrugs her shoulders and takes Shannon’s hand, leading them to the dining hall for breakfast.

Shannon has meeting with Father Vincent and Mother Superion all day to discuss what having the Halo means, which she knows most of, but this is a formality – she wasn’t next in line for the Halo directly, but after they lost the two heirs in the battle two days ago, Shannon was called early. Mother Superion was able to tell Shannon about the mental tool that the Halo would take, expressing immense gratitude that Shannon had Mary and Lilith in her life to help shoulder the burden. It wouldn’t be easy, to see sisters fall in the name of protecting her, nor would it be easy to hurt innocent people in the name of exorcism. But, Superion explained, Shannon would have to realize when not to fight back, and that would be the hardest part of all.

Learning to go second, to let your sisters lead out in potentially deadly situations was not Shannon’s forte. But she recognized that she had the Halo now, it was her duty to try and not die. To be honest, learning about the Halo and her abilities took up so much time, that she forgot about the notebooks Lilith had given her. They sat, unopened, on her desk for months, until one night, Lilith was forced to read entries to Shannon as the three of them lay cuddled together, soothing the hurts from battle.

_It had been the largest infestation of demons reported since Shannon got the Halo. A whole village. The Father had sent Mother Superion a small report a few days ago, that the town was getting worse, and a small team had been dispatched, and so Shannon had gone, without Mary and Lilith (“I will_ not _be risking three of my four best fighters over this. If they need help, then you may go.” Superion had been strict on keeping the three of them separate in battle since Shannon got the Halo. Probably because Lilith was next in line). So Shannon had gone, and within 48 hours, she had phoned back to Superion the depth of the situation and how dire it was turning out to be. There were more than just wraith demons, and they didn’t pack enough Divinium. Too many civilians had unreported symptoms, and so by the time they realized how many people were infected, it was too late._

_Lilith and Mary took off on Mary’s motorcycle, content to beat the rest of the reinforcements. They drove through the night and could hear the sounds of battle several miles out of the town. Mary unholstered her shotguns and Lilith had grabbed one of the spare swords and together, they rode into the town prepared for anything._

_Citizens were fighting each other, they were fighting the sisters, and the sisters were fighting back. Shannon was yelling at her team from the middle of the circle of nuns. Divinium could be seen in the air, bullets flying and swords swiping. Lilith took off running before Mary even turned off her bike and joined the sisters in the fighting. Mary took up a position on the outskirts, scouting moves and relaying information to Lilith on who looked possessed. Their teamwork was unparalleled, and Mary was always so confused why Superion had made them fight separate battles these days. Mary knew it was for Lilith’s safety, but here they are, fighting together anyway. Watching her girlfriends work their way unconsciously towards each other was magical. They seemed to know where each other was at all times, and so Mary looked away and finally joined the fray in earnest._

_The battle seemed to wage for hours, but Mary knew they were slowly making headway. And by the time the rest of reinforcements showed up, bodies littered the town, of those both knocked unconscious and those who weren’t strong enough to fight the demon’s possessing them. All of the sisters had taken hits, but Shannon was definitely suffering the most. She had trained to get the Halo recharging time down to a couple minutes, and even if she didn’t use the Halo in combat, the wounds sustained were still healed. From the looks of it, she was in the middle of de-possessing the last of the civilians when she took a sword to the side. Her combat gear was dripping in blood from already healed wounds, but by the time the battle ended, the gash to her side hadn’t healed. It bled sluggishly, a deep slice that would take hours to heal._

_Lilith was the closest and caught her as Shannon fell after the heat of battle. Mary was busy talking to several of the civilians who hadn’t been possessed about future tasks that needed to be fulfilled, but when she caught sight of her girlfriends and their state, she stopped and asked about lodging for the night. Mateo, the owner of a café, had offered them the space above his restaurant, and Mary helped Lilith carry Shannon into the room._

_Shannon was crying, wincing with every movement, and Mary was concerned, but she was more worried about the lack of concern on Lilith’s face. It was obvious that the Halo had kicked it into gear at some point to finish healing Shannon, and so Mary was confused about the presence of pain Shannon seemed to be feeling._

_“Shan, sunshine, are you okay?” Mary asked, trying to connect some unseen dots in her brain._

_“She’ll be fine, Mary. The Halo healed everything already. Now we just have to deal with the phantom pains.”_

_“I’m sorry. The what??”_

_“The residual hurts?” Lilith seems shocked that Mary doesn’t know what she’s talking about. “It was in the journals! I highlighted that part specifically?”_

_“That’s what those are for?”_

_“Can we please stop bickering? It hurts” Shannon interrupts with a sniffle. Immediately, her girls stop arguing and rush to help._

_Lilith tucks Shannon into the bed, climbs in after her, while Mary runs around to the other side to sandwich their girlfriend between them. Lilith, being the tallest of the three, sits against the headboard, Shannon’s head on her lap with Mary’s arms wrapping around Shannon from behind._

_“Where does it hurt, love?”_

_“Everywhere,” is Shannon’s whispered response. Gently, Lilith starts combing her fingers through Shannon’s hair, undoing the ponytail and scratching at her scalp. It’s a motion that helps Shannon relax after long days of training, and it seems to have similar effects now. Mary brushes her hand over Shannon’s side where the sword made contact and reminds herself that Shannon is here, alive, in her arms. Tears run down Shannon’s face, and Lilith brings up a hand to wipe them away._

_“Just breathe, love. It’ll pass. We’re here until it does.”_

_“Yeah sunshine, we aren’t going anywhere.”_

That first time Shannon let her girlfriends hold her was special. She had thought the pain was all in her head, that she was imagining things. To learn that what she was feeling was _real_ made it hurt less already. When they had gotten back from Ronda the first thing she did was go find the journals and read all of Lilith’s notes and annotations (because _of course_ her girlfriend had logicked getting the Halo). So much was left out of Halo Bearing 101, come to find out, because Shannon is learning more about the Halo from Lilith’s ancestors than from any preparation she got as an heir.

So together, the three had come up with ways of helping Shannon deal with this unfortunate side effect of the Halo. Keeping her muscles loose after a fight seemed to help the best (tight muscles tended to pull at healed injuries) and so one of them would get the heat packs and the other would get the oils. Shannon, who normally wasn’t a big fan of being in the middle (let alone giving off any vibes of being on the bottom), would melt under their touch. On particularly bad days, Lilith and Mary would get her in the tub, bath bomb at the ready and let her cry into their shoulder. Lilith would regale them with stories of her days at boarding school with Beatrice, of the trouble she and Delilah would get into, embarrassing herself in the hopes of distracting Shannon from the pain. Mary would talk about growing up in the States, pranking the particularly annoying foster parents. Shannon loved her girls, but sometimes their stories were too funny and she had to keep herself from laughing too hard.

Most days were mediocre, Shannon content to let them hold her as she suffered quietly, but on the good days? On the good days following a mission where no one got hurt? Shannon would light up, the feeling of fire running through her from the bliss of being with her girls. She would kiss with the passion of a thousand suns, every touch determined to make her girls feel a small part of what she feels when she’s with them.


End file.
